Wouter Vrancken's approach on Hearts transfers as new coach explains what he will do with players
The Belgian has signed a two-year agreement at Tynecastle
New Hearts coach Wouter Vrancken intends to harness and improve the club’s squad but admitted he does not see a need for too many changes. Seven new players have already arrived at Tynecastle since the end of the season and Vrancken knows he has a sizeable group to deal with after agreeing a two-year deal to succeed Derek McInnes.
The Belgian begins work immediately and will try to help new signings integrate with their new team-mates. Wingers Josh McPake and Calvin Miller, defenders MJ Kamson-Kamara and Malachi Boateng, midfielder Tom Renaud, plus forwards Amadou Ba-Sy and Sabri Guendouz are the new recruits brought in so far.
Some existing players could leave, with Portuguese striker Claudio Braga the subject of transfer interest from French club Lyon. Hearts want between £8m and £10m to sell him. Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis is also attracting interest, while Austrian defender Michael Steinwender has been sold to German club Bochum. Kazak winger Islam Chesnokov is also to be sold. Beni Baningime, Frankie Kent, Lewis Neilson, Lawrence Shankland and Alan Forrest have all left Hearts in recent weeks, with midfielder Cammy Devlin still undecided over a new contract.
Vrancken explained his thoughts on a squad which currently totals 35 players and said he intends to work with them to harness the talent within. “I worked with a lot of good players, so always all good players are welcome,” said Vrancken, who did not rule out more signings in time. “It's already a good big squad and they did very well last year. So I don't think it's needed for me to change a lot, just to have maybe other talents for the players that I need more than the previous coach, who did really great.
“You respect a lot the work that he did here, it's incredible. But you're never the same, two coaches are never the same, working on other things. I saw also with the squad who was playing last year that there are a lot of qualities that I can use in my way of playing.
“I always like to come to a club with ambition because otherwise you don't have to be there as a coach I think. I think the best clubs to work in are those that have ambitions. And I think this is a good ambition, it's a good point of focus, a good goal to have. And then we have to work for it and aim as high as possible and then we'll see where we land.”
Vrancken does not have much time to implement his aggressive, energetic style of football. Hearts’ first competitive game is less than a month away against Sturm Graz in the Champions League second qualifying round. “I hope that it's going to go very fast,” he said. “It's always a little bit seeing how fast player pick up things. I hope they don't need too much time to pick up. I don't think so. It's real short preparation, of course, until the Sturm Graz game - a few weeks only. So it's also good that we are spending time in Spain together next week without noise from outside to work together there and to put in the principles there to see how far we come, but I'm really confident that we'll pick up soon.”
He is already familiar with styles and quirks in the Scottish league. “Yeah, for sure, we analysed everything, but I think also you have a lot of different styles in the teams - from really direct towards a more playing football style,” remarked Vrancken. “So yeah, it's challenging. I think it's a little bit similar as what we can see in Belgium also. Also a lot of aggression, physical presence also, transition moments also. So we try to be ready in all kinds of things.
“We will fight for our best, for sure, and you have the smell a little bit of the title last year at Hearts. So that's the nicest thing to play for. Everybody wants to play for those spots and we have to try our best now to get the level in what we want to see at Hearts, what I want to see. So, first, being as good as possible in this and then let's try to have a great season again.”